Sunday, 20 January 2019

I continue to go into the CBD about once a month for appointments, so have also continued to get lunch while I am there. You can see 2017's visits here, I have continued to frequent some old favourites as well. I also ate a number of times at Grill'd, which got its own post here.

VegeRama Myer City and Post Office Square: VegeRama has two locations in the city, which are good for quick take away lunches (unlike their fancy sit down restaurant in West End). This tends to be the old standby for city lunch, and if I am meeting up with my friend Amy for lunch this is where we tend to go. My favourite continues to be their vegan lasagna with a side of dill and mustard salad (with extra dressing). I've also enjoyed their vegan frittata (also with a side of the same salad and a juice), and once I got a takeaway of two salads (Dill and Mustard, or course, and also the BBQ tofu) with a Soy Nugget Wrap.

Guzman y Gomez: This Mexican chain has a number of vegan options. While I enjoy their fresh burrito bowls, I of course had to gravitate towards things with potato in them this year. Namely the Nacho Fries (which ended up being a tad spicy for me), and the Cali Burrito (which has fries in the burrito). A lot of other Mexican chains have started offering vegan cheese (one even vegan sour cream). Guzman does not currently have this, day do have a vegan chimi mayo that is delicious and was great in my Cali Burrito. Apologies for the terrible photo of the burrito innards.

Roll'd: This Vietnamese chain has a couple of locations in the city, one in a food court and also a small restaurant. I've had their rice paper rolls and their pho before, but on a hot day I decided to try their bun. I love these salads! The vegetarian one comes topped with fried tofu and spring rolls, the people working said the spring rolls were vegan, though I couldn't find anything to confirm this on their website afterwards. I'd just stick with extra tofu in the future anyway, as I preferred the tofu. They have vegan fish sauce there, so no need to worry about that!

I Heart Brownies: I'd walked past this cute little brownie kiosk in the Wintergarden a number of times, so I was thrilled when they finally started having vegan brownies. They are a perfect, cute little treat. As well as vegan, they are also gluten free, but they are not dry or crumbly and are delicious. A win for everyone! They started with just the plain flavour, but will sometimes have one or two others. So far I have tried the plain, cherry coconut, and jaffa. They also have vegan milkshakes, made with almond milk and their housemade coconut ice cream. I tried one (strawberry of course), but the ice cream was sadly a little too coconut fatty for my tolerance levels.

Coco Bliss: Smoothies, bowls, nice cream, and also some toast options and assorted lattes. My favourite thing there is the Fruit Tingle smoothie, which has acai, watermelon, and mango, and is excellent on a hot Brisbane day.

I've already been back to the city in 2019, and have explored some new places. I'm hoping to try a few more new to me places this year, but I am pretty sure the old favourites will be there as well.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post

It is hard finding something that excites Dim Sim. At nearly 19, she mostly just sleeps, eats, and snuggles. But I have some very old Yeowwww Catnip Toys that the girls all used to love back in the day. They are hard to find now, but I found the rainbow on line and bought it for her. She very much enjoyed smooching all over it, so it was nice to find something to give her that made her so happy.

Wednesday, 16 January 2019

Continuing on with the second half of last year's goal to make pizza once a month!

Meatball Pizza from Vegan Pizza by Julie Hasson: I actually made this twice. The first time was not such a success, because I used the Ikea veggie balls and they are just too sweet and not right for this kind of thing. The second time I made it using the Gardein meatballs, and it worked much better! I only made a half quantity of the sauce both times. The first time I tried to get it all on, which ended up making the base (I used a ready made for this attempt) too smooshy. The second time I used just what I needed, so there was some sauce left over, and it worked out better. That time I used the base recipe from the book. Definitely recommend using a meaty meatball and being careful with the sauce!
Rating: :) (second attempt)

Cheeseburger Pizza from Cook The Pantry by Robin Robertson: I really went for some meaty and cheese pizzas last year. I used the pizza dough recipe from the cookbook (it makes enough for two bases, so I froze half for the next time), and it was a super easy dough to make. This recipe uses a cashew cheese sauce on the base, though it could have been a bit thicker. I was worried it was all going to run right off the base! It is topped with some TVP (which I soaked in beef flavoured stock rather than water for more flavour). I also garnished with ketchup, mustard, and gherkin relish.
Rating: :)

BBQ Chickpea Pizza from Cook The Pantry by Robin Robertson: This is a very easy pizza to make. The base is topped with a mix of chickpeas mashed with BBQ sauce, tamari, and mustard (also chiles, but I subbed that with some diced celery). The topping uses two tins of chickpeas, but really you could halve it as it led to an incredibly thick layer. Although not mentioned in the recipe, I topped it with some FYH mozzarella. I'm glad I did because otherwise it would have been a bit samey. I accidentally overcooked the base a bit (in both this recipe and the above one the base is baked for a bit first), but it worked in my favour given the topping was so heavy and a bit sloppy!
Rating: :)

Muffuletta Pizza from Vegan Pizza by Julie Hasson: Base, tomato garlic sauce, olive salad and garlic salad. The olive salad is a mix of three different olives, capers, giardiniera (I used some home made one from 1000 Vegan Recipes as all the store bought ones had chillies in them), and herbs. I found it to be a bit too salty, but I didn't have the right mix of olives (not enough green) so I think the kalamata overpowered it a bit. I also used water rather than olive oil, but even so I found it a bit oily overall (even with leaving off the extra olive oil it suggests to garnish!). The pizza needed some freshness. I only made a half recipe of the olive salad so I could use it all up on the pizza, the recipe says it makes a lot so you will have some left over if you make the whole batch. I did add a little bit of my beloved Fenn smoked sesame cheese on the base before adding the rest of the ingredients, so that adding a nice creamy counterpart to the saltiness.
Rating: :|

Meat-Free Lover's Barbecue Pizza from Taste For Life by Animals Australia: The recipe as written makes two pizzas (including the dough), I halved it for one. The pizza is topped with a mix of tomato paste and BBQ sauce, then cheese (in a shocking twist, I used the Daiya blend shreds), hot dogs (I used Field Roast Frankfurters), and red onion. It is also meant to have chopped sun dried tomatoes, but I realised I was out when I went to get them from the fridge. Garnished with some chives for colour, you can also garnish with a herbed sour cream that I did not make. This was a good pizza, I love BBQ pizzas, could have had some pineapple. But that's just me.
Rating: :)

BBQ Pineapple Pizza from Chloe's Kitchen by Chloe Coscarelli: Yes, more BBQ pizza! I skipped the dough recipe in the book (I had made it once before and found it to be kind of runny and sticky) in favour of a pre-made pizza base. I can't get the pre-made dough that the US cookbooks all seem to talk about, and finding vegan pizza bases that are actually good can be tricky as well (WHY ALL THE MILK IN THEM?), but I have found a base that I like now. This is topped with BBQ sauce, BBQ sauce roasted tofu, caramelised onions, and pineapple. No cheese. I knew my base was going to be smaller than the one the book would make, so I just made a half recipe of the BBQ sauce, but still piled on on the toppings! It was a nice combination, especially with the caramelised onions.
Rating: :)

And there endeth the challenge. It was a fun challenge, because I love pizza but I don't make it enough. I got to try a few different recipes for pizza dough as well!

So what does 2019 hold in store for my food blogging challenge? I had a number of thoughts. But then I decided my goal was to have no goal at all. My year hasn't gotten off to the greatest start, so the idea of just being able to go with the flow and not be locked into anything specific is very appealing. But of course I'll still be cooking and eating and blogging!

Monday, 14 January 2019

For 2018, I set myself the challenge of making pizza once a month. This is the first six months of that challenge. Please excuse my inability to take pretty photos of pizzas! They all kind of look the same.

Spinach, Onion, Mushroom, and Sausage Pizza from Vegan Pizza by Julie Hasson: This is in the book listed as Pepperoni in the title, rather than sausage, but I took the option to use the sausage crumbles. I made the pizza base, tomato-garlic sauce, and sausage crumbles all from the book. The result was excellent! It also has spinach, mushrooms, red onion, and mozzarella (I used FYH). It all combined perfectly, the cheese melted into the sauce deliciously, this was a fabulous pizza!
Rating: :D

Garlic, Sausage, and Onion Pizza from Vegan Pizza by Julie Hasson: Another solid pizza, this uses tomato-garlic pizza sauce and the dough from the book. I took the option of using sliced vegan sausages (Vegie Delights BBQ sausages) rather than the sausage crumbles for this one. It also has onion and garlic on it, as the name would suggest, and more FYH mozzarella. I left off the optional jalapeno.
Rating: :)

Meaty Cheese Pizza from Veganize It by Robin Robertson: This pizza was super! The dough is not as easy as the one from Vegan Pizza, and I found it ended up a bit sticky, but it was still great. This book has options for DIY or store-bought, and I used a mix. I made the pepperoni from the book, and used the Oven-Roasted Tomato Sauce as well. But I used some tofurky beef crumbles and FYH mozzarella in place of from scratch recipes. This pizza, as you can imagine, is very filling!
Rating: :D

Pizza with Zucchini, Artichokes, and Soy Mozzarella from The Complete Vegan Cookbook by Susann Geiskopf-Hadler and Mindy Toomay: The pizza dough recipe in this book is a little fiddly, so I made it on the dough setting in my bread maker and it worked great. A very puffy dough! This pizza was topped with artichoke hearts, zucchini (which I sliced into rounds rather than into strips), FYH mozzarella (I love it), garlic, and onion. The recipe gives instructions for grill or oven, I used a pizza stone in my hot oven. It was a bit gooey in the middle, it could have baked for a little longer, but was a nice combination.
Rating: :)

Pizza with Baked Garlic and Grilled Eggplant from The Complete Vegan Cookbook by Susann Geiskopf-Hadler and Mindy Toomay: This pizza was a bit on the bland side, it definitely needed more seasoning. Roasted garlic mashed into a paste forms the 'sauce' for the pizza, and I thing this would have benefited from something added to it. I roasted the eggplant, then finished it off with a quick grill on the George Foreman for the pretty marks. The recipe calls for grilled red and green capsicum, but I ditched that in favour of tomatoes and corn. The recipe encourages experimenting with different vegetables. No cheese on this one, and while I have no problem with cheeseless pizza, I feel that would have helped a bit with the flavour. Or just season things better!
Rating: :|

The Meat Hater's Pizza from Now Vegan by Lynda Stoner: Another meaty and cheesy style pizza. The dough for this ended up being very bready and thick, I prefer a thinner crust. I only made a half recipe of the tomato sauce (using onion powder instead of chopped onion), and it was the right amount of the pizza. The toppings include BBQ sauce, vegan cheese (you know by now what I used!), and a selection of different mock meaty, tofu, tempeh, and mushroom suggestions. I used some sliced Vegie Delight BBQ sausages, chopped Tofurky Smoked slices, diced Japanese Flavoured Tofu, a chopped Fry's schnitzel, and sliced mushrooms. Topped with some sliced tomato. The filling toppings along with the thick crust made for a very filling, heavy, pizza.
Rating: :)

Stay tuned for part two!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post

Today is seven years since I had to say goodbye to Gizmo. It still hurts, as it should. I miss her so much.

Saturday, 12 January 2019

I'm not one to get excited about a new year. Honestly, it is just the passage of time. I never stay up until midnight, and I don't do long lists of resolutions. I am the New Year grinch. But I still have a few food traditions that amuse me around this time. So here it is, from 2018 to 2019.

New Year's Eve Eve

Normally I make pizza and pie on New Year's eve. However this year (last year?) my brother and his girlfriend were arriving from London on NYE in the evening, so that was going to be its own thing. So I did my tradition a year early. In the past I have made two pizzas, but this year I just made one.

BBQ Hawaiian Chicken Pizza: I guess this can technically be I made a thing, but really it is just I put some stuff on a pizza. I used a pre-made pizza base, topped it with BBQ sauce and Fenn Smoked Sesame Cheese, then layered on some chopped Vegie Delights schnitzel, pineapple chunks, black olives, and Daiya cheddar. Once it was out, I sprinkled it with some bacon bits and some chives. It was really satisfying, and really easy.

Apricot Frangipane Tart from Vegan Desserts by Hannah Kaminsky: I love apricots, and we are having a really good apricot season at the moment. My pastry skills are still pretty amateur, but I was pleased with how pretty this turned out! The pastry was easy to make, though I found it was a bit thick and tough (which could be due to me, I need more practice). The filling was delicious - almond meal and sugar and things, it was like a perfect non too sweet soft marzipan, topped with the sliced apricots. The filling called for 1TBS flaxseed, which you then grind. I skipped that and just used ready ground flax. This was a lovely taste, and kept well for a couple of days.
Rating: :)

New Year's Eve

We decided to go with a spread of snacks for the actual NYE. By the time they landed, got through customs, and my parents drove them home, it was almost 8pm. So I was glad we hadn't planned for anything more complex. There was crusty bread, water crackers, veggie sticks, and GF rice crackers to go with Fenn Smoked Sesame Cheese, Kehoe Beetroot Dip, and Tartex Mushroom Pate. It was my first time trying the beetroot cashew dip, and it was surprisingly tangy. It is probiotic, so I guess that is why?

Rounding out the spread we had some dolmades, kalamata olives, left over tart, cherries, grapes, watermelon, and some vegan GF rosemary, cranberry, and sea salt biscotti. There was only one non-vegan thing on the table, which is hiding behind the star. It was stuffed mini capsicums, which to be honest I probably would have starred out even if they were vegan because you know how I feel about capsicum!

I stayed up way later than I normally would on NYE, but was still asleep before midnight. Everyone else stayed up to eat 12 grapes at midnight, which is a Spanish tradition. My brother's partner is Spanish. Dim Sim and I were asleep.

New Year's Day

Vegan Chocolate Buttermilk Pancakes from The Abundance Diet by Somer McCowan: My brother eats mostly GF, so I made some GF pancakes for my traditional New Year's Day pancakes. Somer has a GF flour blend you can make in the book, but I used a smidge of leftover Bob's Red Mill and the rest just some Coles GF flour I picked up at the supermarket. They turned out so well! These pancakes are delicious, and I was silly not to make a double batch. I got 11 pancakes using a scant 1/4 cup as a scoop, and there were 5 of us, so we savoured what we had. Rounded out with some leftover fruit from the previous night. I used regular brown ground flax rather than golden, because that is what I have and who can tell in chocolate pancakes anyway. I also used maple syrup instead of stevia, because stevia is gross. But do you know what is not gross? These delicious pancakes! SO GOOD MAKE THEM!
Rating: :D

Black-Eyed Pea & Collard Stew with Spicy Tahini from The No Meat Athlete Cookbook by Matt Frazier and Stephanie Romine: Technically this should be called borlotti bean & silverbeat stew with tahini, because I made some changes. Collards are not available here, so I used silverbeet instead (and added their chopped stems to the stew when I added the carrots and celery instead of capsicum). Tinned black eyed beans are also not available here (they were for like, two minutes, but no longer) and I didn't have energy to make some from scratch (yes, I know it is super easy but sometimes you just need a tin), so I used borlotti beans instead. The stew also has pearl barley in it (I soaked it for a few hours before as recommended in the recipe so it cooked perfectly in time) and tinned fire-roasted tomatoes. They are super expensive and hard to find here, so I used regular tomatoes and added some smoked paprika. The tahini drizzle is lovely with lemon, maple syrup, and liquid smoke. It is meant to have sriracha, but I left that out and just had sriracha out for people to add if desired. The stew itself made a lot (served 5 people easily), though was quite liquid. I served with coriander on top instead of scallions because I was using stuff up.
Rating: :)

So hello 2019, I guess. Also, I am also super behind on catching up on reading blog posts, but I am getting there! This year has already started off with some pretty big challenges, so I haven't been on my laptop quite as much.

PureFit Peanut Butter Choc Chip Bar: I had some PureFit bars when I was in the US, and I loved them! The peanut butter ones anyway. So super stoked that we can get them here now, and that I got one in this box.

Tinned Banana Blossom: I have previously used a tin of this to make a recipe from a cookbook, but not sure what else to do with it. A lot of the recipes for tinned banana blossom (including the one that was included with the box) involve deep frying it like a fish and chips deal, which super does not appeal to me. Bit I am sure the internet will provide a suggestion.

Ape Lightle Salted Coconut Curls: I don't cope well with coconut fat, coconut in other forms is OK. So I am interested in these. Probably not to snack on, though, but as a topping for salad or baked goods.

Gluten Free Food Co Gravy Mix: This company makes a lot of vegan mac and cheese and sauce mixes that I have never tried because they are all coconut based. However this gravy mix seems to be coconut free, so yay. I like a quick gravy mix.

Friday, 4 January 2019

Believe it or not, my Christmas wasn't all eating out. And while we didn't do the traditional Christmas lunch this year, there were still a few things that I made.

Midsummer Salad from Bowls of Goodness by Nina Olsson: While all my US friends were deep in winter, here we are in summer. For my witchy pals, that means Yule in the Northern Hemisphere, but Litha down here in the Southern Hemisphere. This salad seemed appropriately named to make on the longest day of the year (or close enough, I think I worked all day on the actual day). Potatoes, lots of dill, spinach, cucumber, capers, chives, and some apple were all mixed in with a creamy mustard dressing. The apple was a wonderful addition, as its sweetness went great with the tangy dressing. The recipe calls for red onion, but as I don't do raw onion I added some celery for the crunch and it was great. This book is not all vegan, but has a vegan option for everything. The vegetarian version had eggs, which it says to leave out for vegans. I added some white beans to the mix as well instead. Served over some chopped baby cos.
Rating: :)

Party Nacho Platter from Vegan Yack Attack On The Go by Jackie Sobon: The last few years I have taken to making nachos for dinner on Christmas Eve. This year, that was delayed until Boxing Day as I was unwell on Christmas Eve and couldn't cook. But I had all the stuff, so I was glad I could still make it at some point! Corn chips are topped with a Buckwheat Taco Meat, queso (made using a Butternut Cheese Sauce base with some extras added in and some pinto beans, and I left out the jalapenos), tomatoes, avocado, coriander, and sour cream (I used natural almond yoghurt, which I forgot to put on until after the photos. I also left off the radishes and cos lettuce that the recipe suggested as they aren't my preferred nacho toppings. I also served them individually rather than on a big platter, so that my parents could top as they desired. I found the buckwheat taco meat a little underwhelming, I had to add extra water and cook for extra time to get it soft enough, so perhaps the flavours got too diluted. But it worked well witht he stronger flavours of the nachos.
Rating: :)

Banana Eggnog Pancakes from The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz: I made these for breakfast on Boxing Day, as there was no morning yoga class and I had a bottle of delicious, locally made nutnog in the fridge. The stars aligned. These had a lovely, sweet, mild flavour and were a fabulous way to start the day. I used a 1/4 cup as my scoop (rather than 1/3 cup) and got 11 pancakes (rather than 8). Served with some dried cranberries and some maple syrup.
Rating: :)

Nutnog Overnight Oats: Bonus recipe from me! Not that overnight oats really count as making a recipe? Anyway, I thought it would be a fun way to use my nutnog. And it was. I consulted the internet oracles for some inspiration, as well as following my own heart. This is what I did.

Mix 1C of rolled oats, 1TBS of chia seeds, 1.5C of your vegan nut/eggnog, 1/4 cup dried cranberries, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon (you can add more or less, I probably added more because I am a cinnamon fiend). Leave overnight to soak and get delicious. In the morning, top with slivered almonds, pomegranate arils, and nutmeg. Eat! I don't add any additional sweetener, but you could mix in some maple syrup if you like things sweet.

And the other stuff...

Of course there were some delicious other eats as well. Such as this plate of cherries and vegan stollen (I love stollen, thanks Aldi!), with a glass of nutnog. And my first ever viewing of Die Hard.

A ham and cheese toasted croissant, using Tofurky Ham and Fenn Smoked Sesame Cheese. Other non-pictured things I made with the Tofurky included a ham and Daiya smoked gouda toasted sandwich, and also out traditional Christmas sandwich of ham, sweet mustard pickles, cheese (a Tofutti cheese slice), and a bit of Nuttelex.

And of course, some Christmas Pudding with Custard. I actually bought the pudding in January on a 50% off sale. It had a really long expiry date, so why not save some dollars and buy it super early. This pudding is delicious, especially with loads of custard.

There were of course other snacks and bits and pieces, but these were the most Christmas-related of them all. So, until next year... this year... whatever. Until next time it is Christmas.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post

Gizmo looking like the perfect present under the Christmas tree. This was also her last Christmas. What I wouldn't give to wake up one morning and find her under there again.

Thursday, 3 January 2019

For the last few years, The Green Edge has held a special menu Christmas dinner the weekend before Christmas. I went last year with my friend Melanie, and this year we went again.

The tables were cute and Christmas themed! And when we got there, we were given a little sampler of their Gingerbread Frappe.

The menu ended up being exactly the same as last year, though last year there was also a cheese platter option for the dessert. I've heard that they are planning on revamping the menu for next year (this year now?), which would be fun to change things up.

We both got the same entrees that we had last year. I had the delicious Arancini with Pesto and Garlic Mayo, and Melanie had the Avocado Prawns.

Last year we both had the stuffed butternut roast, and this year we both tried the festive seitan roast. The pieces of the roast we smaller, but it was quite heavy so that was good. With vegetables and gravy and mashed potato.

For dessert, we both had the sticky date pudding (which is what I had last year). It came with whipped cream and coconut ice cream, but I just asked for mine with the (soy based) cream. Last year I had made the mistake of ordering a very sweet Pumpkin Spice Hot Chocolate at the same time as dessert, which ended me with too much sugar. This year, after sipping a kombucha during dinner, I skipped any other drink options and stuck with the dessert. It was delicious!

Melanie and I are keen to make a Christmas dinner tradition between us, but we are hopeful that next year the menu will be changed up a bit so we can try new things!

Lover of Kittens and Kitchens

I have two great loves in my life. Firstly are the wonderful beings that are kitty cats. Second is vegan cooking in all its forms. So don't freak out if you find a stray cat hair settled into your cupcake.
I am a cat vet and I am also lucky enough to share my life with my fabulous girls - Dim Sim (small and black) and Sahara (cinnamon Abyssinian). Also my angel cat Gizmo, who may have left us but is never forgotten. I've been a vegan since September 2000, and haven't looked back since! I don't really make my own recipes, what I do like to do is make other people's recipes (I have shelves of vegan cookbooks) or eat out, take photographs and then share the results.